


Side-Effects

by Aperturex



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Boss/Employee Relationship, Cave can be nice, Courtship, F/M, Feelings Realization, Love Confessions, Mutual Pining, Oblivious Cave Johnson, but only to Caroline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 14:02:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14166450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aperturex/pseuds/Aperturex
Summary: Side-effects of long-term exposure include, and is not limited to: excelerated heart-rate, excess of sweat, hormonal overloads and increased anxiety and stress around the independent variable.Unfortunately, Cave Johnson exhibits all these symptoms.





	Side-Effects

He couldn't exactly explain his feelings. Not coherently, at least. Usually he could tell when he was hungry or upset and why (either because Greg messed up his takeaway order for the former, and the latter about how those bloody Washington elites with their space programs made it to space before he did, he will get a Aperture Science flag twice the size of the US flag and plant it there himself if he had to, screw the eggheads saying the ship wasn't space ready yet). But this new feeling, he couldn't shake it off.

Cave rubbed his palms together, trying to ward off the perspiration that was forming there. Last he checked, he hadn't been anywhere near Science Sphere Alpha-Bravo, where contact with the Endurance Gel seemed to make the entire water contents of a human be perspirated out intermittently until dehydration kicks in. So he shouldn't be sweating like this. It didn't seem hot in the room either.

"Caroline!" He called out. She'd have the answer. She usually knew what was wrong with him before he himself did. Having her by his side... It was a real gift to have her assisting him. He found that weird heartburn he'd been getting flared up again, and he hasn't eaten anything spicy since Taco Tuesday (which was on Friday after the allergin fiasco on the 19th floor).

There was something different in her tone when she spoke, entering with her usual swift professionalism. "Yes, sir?" Cave had to rub his chest as his heart wanted to burst out of it. And he didn't like the appeal of that after what happened to Testing Group Tango-Foxtrot. The human heart really didn't like being exposed.

"I, uh, the condition's flared up again. Ya got any of those magic pills?" He asked, leaned back in his chair. When he noticed the shorter length of Caroline's skirt, his palms became even more sweaty, and his throat dry.

"You know how I feel about the word magic, sir." Her eyes glinted mischeviously, in a way that made Cave want to shower her in paychecks. God, he needed her. He hadn't meant a woman so driven, so passionate, so clever before. Especially not one that was cheeky to Cave Johnson. 

"Right, right, magic is just science we haven't figured out yet." Cave smirked back at her, catching the bottle of pain relief she'd tossed at him. He downed a couple of pills, but they didn't do anything to help his overactive pulse.

"Is that all, sir?" She asked, patiently. Cave stared a little while before he realized he should be talking.

"Ye-No, no." He backpedaled when there was a pain in his heart at the thought of Caroline going back to her desk. "I... need..." Cave looked around for excuses. There had to be something. With everything falling apart with the Senate hearings and PR fires... There had to be some excuse to see Caroline.

He needed to wake up to a warm breakfast and her soft, gentle voice waking him up. He needed her playful grin when she thought he'd said something clever. He needed her hands as they gently wrapped around his elbow when she was watching a test being completed. He needed her optimism when he realized he'd never get the glory of Aperture back, not with homeless and orphans doing his tests and the government at his throat. He needed her realism when he was caught up in hairbrained ideas that's cost too much. Though there was never too high a price for science.

Maybe he'd felt this way only recently, or since he had met Caroline. He didn't know.

He only just realized he loved her after all.

"You. I need you."

"Mr. Johnson, I'm not sure I-" She cut herself off' modestly blushing. Her grip on her clipboard tightened. "You're my boss, sir."

"So, now you suddenly have problems with bending the rules a little?" Cave leaned against his desk, flashing the same smile he had as a small town shower curtain salesman.

Caroline shook her head. "It's a bad idea, sir. We're already in hot water as it is, we don't need another scandal." She took a step forward him, tentatively. When Cave frowns, she adds, "No offense to you, sir. Any woman would be lucky to be your partner." She puts her hands on his chest. 

Cave nodded. He only half understood what she meant. He didn't see any harm in being with her. She deserved the job, and any praise she got for it, not because she would be sleeping with him for it. She was the best damn employee in the entire facility.

But it was fine, Cave Johnson always got his way. Now that he had his mind set, there was no stopping him. This time next week she'd be begging to go out with him.

~~~

Cave was very lucky that the window in his office let him glance over at Caroline's desk outside it. It's help him many times, such as when he'd started choking on a surprise bone in an Aperture-grown chicken wing and Caroline had noticed in the corner of her eye him flailing in desperation, or when a government official had come in and Caroline noticed her boss doing the universal diving for cover under his desk, the signal to pretend he was outside. 

It also meant he could see her when she noticed the gift. Perfectly wrapped in a vibrant red bow, a brand spanking new typewriter lay on her desk, begging for a memo to be written with it. The latest model, the golden cursive on the side spelt Cave Johnson in loopy elegant handwriting. Of course, they didn't have the funds for a whole typewriter line, but they did have a stamp with his name on it, so might as well go for it.

Caroline was uncharacteristically late, but Cave's heart clenched when he heard the familiar echoes of her heels. They paused for a second, and a shadow cast across the glass before in a rush of heel clicks and a blur of action Caroline found the typewriter. Cave couldn't help but grin as Caroline's fingers went into action in wrapping the bow and slipping in paper. A few minutes later, after swift clacks and clicks, Caroline entered the office and a piece of paper landed at Cave's desk. It read in fresh ink, clearly: 'Thank you, Mr. Johnson.' Cave looked up at Caroline by her new typewriter, and shared a smile with her.

This continued for weeks, each day something different. There were a few disasters along the way, including a dinner that was unknowingly explosive, a toxic cup of coffee that would quite literally burn the roof of a person's mouth (thankfully Caroline didn't take the first cup of that brew) and a pet turret that turned on anyone who smiled. But Caroline seemed to soften a little, her desk now covered in vases of roses and daffodils, and boxes of chocolate interspliced with stacks of mail. She would go to the surface with him on lunch breaks and picnic at the benches near the forests. They'd compete with the furthest skipping stone by the lake, and taking walks in nature. They spotted a deer once.

At the end of every day Care would ask and Caroline would say no.

It was a chilly Fall day, and the leaves had turned red and yellow and littered the ground. Cave had taken off his jacket and wrapped it around Caroline's shoulders, and she burrowed thankfully into it. 

"You can be quite kind when you want to be, sir." Caroline mused. The way Cave looked at her, warm and passionate at the same time... She'd only seen it with science before. And now Cave was trying so hard to convince her to date him...

It wasn't that she didn't like Cave. She didm. His steadfastness, refusal to give up in the face of certain failure. The way he's lit up when interviewing Caroline, spoke about science like it was some kind of legendary tale he got to take part in. He was short tempered sure, and sometimes a moron. But he was her moron.

Caroline tugged his jacket closer.

"Cave?" She asked, and he stopped suddenly, turning to meet her eyes. His eyebrows were raised, and he seemed more vulnerable than she had ever seen him before. "Why are you doing all of this?"

He hadn't recovered from her saying his first name, and stumbled a bit over the dirt forest path. "Well, I, er. Wouldn't be where I am without you. And I'm not just talking about professionally, either. You're everything that I'm not." He studied his hands nervously, too embarrassed by what he was going to say next to look up. "I think I love you, Caroline."

Caroline's first love was science. But on the surface, miles above her offices, she forgot a little of what science made her feel. It was just a man and a woman up here. Nothing holding them back.

She moved beside him, cupping his cheek as she stood on her heels to reach his lips, and pressed hers against his firmly, Caroline's breath coming out in visible puffs.

"That was the only thing you had to say." She murmured. "You didn't have to buy me anything."

Cave was still silent, his jaw openening and closing as he looked back at Caroline in shock.

"You could have said something! Don't make a man dangle like that, Caroline. It isn't fair." He touched his lips with his hand and inspected his fingers, as if trying to figure out if it was a dream.

"Mr. Johnson, I'm not sure love is very fair."


End file.
